Like many salespeople and small business owners, I find staying focused during prime selling hours to be difficult.
Interruptions, minor emergencies, emails, phone calls, and a myriad of other issues and concerns are constantly trying to draw my attention away from my primary business activity—selling.
My observation from dealing with hundreds of sellers on the phone—and please don’t assume this is a cold caller issue alone as a great many sellers make these mistakes whether on the phone or in-person although they seem to be more prevalent in phone conversations—is they cannot distinguish between a straightforward question about their product or service, an objection to purchasing, and a direct statement ending the conversation. But if we sellers want to be relevant to prospects, we better learn the communication skills that have always been one of the hallmarks of the top sellers.
Slowly we’re beginning to hear about an improved bit of economic news here, a better than expected economic thing there. Some of the sellers and sales leaders I’m speaking to are asking about when I think the markets will really pick up and what are other clients saying about their sales and what they see
Many salespeople are surprised when they contact a prospect who has been referred by one of their clients and the prospect isn’t interested in meeting with them. Most salespeople assume that if a client referred them to someone, the prospect will naturally meet with them based on their client’s recommendation. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case.
The transition from sales rep to manager is one of the most complicated career transitions. Dave Brock explains why reps-turned-manager struggle.
Your primary competitor is very difficult to outsell. You run across your biggest competitor far more often than you run across that Big Name Company or top salesperson. And more than likely, you lose far more sales to this competitor than you do to all other competitors combined. Paul McCord on indecision and stalled deals.
It used to be that when we connected with a prospect, we were expected to help the prospect understand the root cause of their issues and needs and to develop solutions that addressed those issues.
Prospect self-diagnosis and self-medication completely changes our profession from one of essential solution developer to being simply a commodity supplier; and when all we can do is supply a commodity, our expertise has little or no value over and above the market value of the product we sell. How do we become relevant to those who believe they no longer need the advice?
The price of your goods and services is always a primary concern to your prospects. Whether you like it or not, price is top of mind with the majority, if not all, of your prospects; and you probably find the question of price comes up in your conversations with prospects long before you have had
The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them. Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time. Period. Now, you don’t see it the same way. You believe you
Weak economy? Slower sales? Worried about 2009? Yes, the economy is much weaker than at this time last year. And, yes, sales are harder to come by now than they have been in a long time. Nevertheless, these conditions don’t mean you have to fret or resign yourself to struggling through 2009. Instead of fretting,
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